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MEMOIR 



OF 



HON. REUEL WILLIAMS, 



PREPARED FOR THE 



MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



BY 

JOHN A. POOR. 



READ AT A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY IN AUGUSTA, FEBRUARY, 18^). 






PRIVATELY PRINTED. 

1864. 






RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY 



MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Extract from the Records at the Annual Meeting of the Maine Historical 
Society, held at the Rooms of the Society, in Bowdoin College, Bruns- 
wick, August 7, 1862. 

" The following preamble and resolution were offered, and unanimously 
adopted : — 

" Whereas, It has pleased God to call from this world the Hon. Reuel 
Williams, one of the original members of the Maine Historical Society, 
we, the members thereof, place upon the records of the Society our testi- 
mony to his eminent ability, his elevated character, his social virtues, and 
his distinguished public services ; and our respect for his memory. 

"Resolved, That the Standing Committee be advised to invite some one 
familiar with his character, and of ability as a writer, to prepare an eulo- 
gium upon his character, and a memoir of his life and public services, to 
be publicly read at the next meeting of the Society in Augusta." 

A true copy from the records. 

Attest, EDWARD BALLARD, 

Secretary. 



At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Maine Historical Society, 
held on November 7, 1862, the following action was had : — 

"John A. Poor, Esq., was appointed to deliver the eulogy on the 
late Hon. Reuel Williams, of Augusta, in accordance with the vote of 
the Society." 

A true extract from the minutes. EDWARD BALLARD, 

Sec'y Standing Com. 



MEMOIR. 



Plutarch, in his Life of Solon, relates that after 
that great law-giver had completed his labors and 
established a code of laws for Athens, he resigned 
all his trusts, and for ten years employed himself 
in foreign travel, in order the more impartially to 
'observe the workings of the laws he had framed, 
in the hands of others, entirely uninfluenced by any 
participation of his own in the administration of the 
government. In these travels he visited Croesus, 
the renowned kino; of Lvdia, whose fabled wealth 
has made his name familiar to modern times, who 
received Solon with all the respect due to one so 
distinguished for wisdom and virtue, showed him 
the extent of his riches and the countless means of 
enjoyment thereby furnished, and then asked him 
who he thought was the most fortunate man he 
had ever known. "One Tellus, a fellow-citizen of 
mine," promptly replied Solon, "who had been an 
honest man, had had good children, a competent 
estate, and died bravely in battle for his country.'' 
Piqued at the gravity of Solon's manner, as also 
by his pungent sarcasm, Croesus in another form 
renewed the inquiry, gravely intimating that a 
man's power of present enjoyment was certainly a 



1 * 



6 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

proof of the favor of the gods. "The numerous 
misfortunes that attend all conditions," said Solon, 
" forbid us to grow insolent upon present enjoy- 
ments, or to admire any man's happiness that may 
yet, in the course of time, suffer change. He only 
to whom Divinity has continued happiness unto the 
end. we call happy." 

Philosophers and moralists have, in every age, 
speculated on the problem of human felicity, and 
in .almost every form of language, put forth diverse 
theories as to the true measure of happiness or good 
fortune among men. But it is difficult to find, in 
sacred or profane writings, a more full and satisfac- 
tory definition of good fortune, of what constitutes 
the greatest good in life, or the true end and aim of 
earthly existence, than that given to us by the great 
Athenian teacher and law-giver. For to be truly an 
honest man. requires the exercise of the highest 
intellectual and moral qualities ; to have good chil- 
dren, has in every age been held to be the fruition 
of earthly good ; to acquire or possess a competent 
estate, places a man above the necessity of those 
practice's that tend to diminish self-respect : and to 
die in the public service has always been the great 
end of earthly ambition. To die in battle, awakens 
that quick sympathy of the multitude which assuages 
the grief of friends, and inspires courage in one sum- 
moned to the other world from this field of duty. 
To he wise to the last, to fulfil every private duty, 
and he allowed to labor to the end of lift- for the 
public welfare which Solon regarded as the truest 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 7 

good, is the rarest of earthly opportunities. To be a 
public benefactor, and to escape the common infirmi- 
ties of humanity till the measure of life is filled to 
fourscore, without any diminution of zeal in the 
public welfare, is as satisfactory proof of virtue, as, 
in the flush of youth and health, to fall bravely in 
battle. 

At the departure from earth of one eminent in 
any of the walks of life, the upright among those 
who knew him instinctively review his life and 
history, in the exercise of unprejudiced judgment, 
and assign to him his proper place in the list of the 
illustrious dead, regardless of the popular prejudices 
of the hour. The accidents of fortune, the distinc- 
tions of official station, are soon forgotten, and a 
man's character stands forth in its true light before 
the world. Partisan prejudice, religious intolerance, 
the selfishness of unworth}^ minds, may for a while 
prevent an impartial award, but in the end every 
man will find his true place in the world's regard. 
While most foil into forgetfulness, and a few are 
held up as examples of warning to survivors, the 
true benefactors of their race are finally enrolled in 
the catalogue of the wise and the good. 

One year ago, our Society listened with enchained 
attention to the Memoir of one of its original mem- 
bers, whose life of usefulness had led him on to that 
venerable age that left no companion or contem- 
porary behind him ; who seemed to glide with such 
quiet grace among his fellow-men of a later genera- 
tion, as to seem like one from the spirit-land. That 



8 .MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAM-. 

charming Memoir of John Merrick, from the classic 
pen of the Rev. Dr. Goodwin, published for this 
Society, is eagerly sought for by scholars and men 
of taste, a- a fortunate and choice contribution to 
American biographical literature. 

A duty equally grateful, but far more difficult, is 
imposed on one of its members to-day, in speaking 
of another of its original founders, whose life, long 
drawn out. was not so extended as to lose its influ- 
ence or hold on the men of his own time — whose 
eminent ability, elevated character, social virtues, 
and distinguished public service-, won for him the 
respect of his associate members, and of the com- 
munity in which he lived. — and who. always a leader 
among men, fell, finally, at his post> in the front 
rank, on the busy battle-field of life; leaving the 
legacy of a wide public reputation to his country, 
and the richer treasure of a good name to distin- 
guished inheritors of his fame and fortune. 

Ki;i i.i, WILLIAMS, the second of twelve children of 
Captain Seth Williams and Zilpha Ingraham. was 
born on the second day of June, ITS."), within the 
limits of that part of the ancient town of Hallow ell 
which is now the city of Augusta. lie enjoyed the 
rare distinction of living, and dying, at a ripe old 
age. in the place of his birth Hi- father, said to 

have been of Welsh origin, born December L3, 

1756, was a man of character and consequence 

among bis fellow-men ; by occupation both a farmer 

and a tanner. He emigrated from Stoughton, Mas- 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 9 

sachusetts, in 1779, and married Zilpha Ingraham 3 
born April 16, 1761, the daughter of Benaiah and 
Abigail Ingraham, who were among the early set- 
tlors of Augusta. Captain Seth Williams died 
March 18, 1817, at the age of sixty-one years, 
enjoying to the end of his life the respect of his 
fellow-townsmen, having filled many offices of public 
trust. His independent spirit and upright conduct 
imparted their influence to his children and others 
around him. 

But. like most men of strikingly marked qualities, 
Reuel Williams derived the peculiarities of his mind 
and character mainly from his mother. Self-reliant, 
shrewd, firm, energetic, and conscientious, she had 
unbounded affection and every motherly virtue ; and 
was, to the end of her life, an example of every 
Christian grace. She died at Augusta, September 
20, 1845, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. 
One capable of appreciating her high qualities of 
mind and heart, with abundant means of judging, 
described her, many years ago, as illustrating every 
Christian virtue and every social excellence that can 
dignify and adorn the family circle. She merited 
and received the affection and respect of all who 
knew her, and her example and teachings bore fruit 
in the lives of her children. 

Reuel had only the meagre advantages then 
afforded by the common schools of his native town 
till the age of twelve when he commenced his attend- 
ance upon Hallowell Academy, boarding at home 
in Augusta, and walking two miles, daily, each way, 



10 MEMOES OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

to and from the school. Here he acquired a classical 
education, equal to the fitting of one for college, 
before he was fifteen years of age. On returning 
from the Academy in the evening, he usually went 
into his lather's shop, and worked at the shoemaker's 
bench, — for his father carried on the business of a 
tanner and a shoemaker, — and Reuel often finished a 
shoe before retiring for the night. Yet he was so 
prompt in his attendance at the Academy every 
morning that Judge Robbins,o f Hallowell. used to 
say, " I must send my sons to Augusta to board, so 
that they may get seasonably to school." For a 
short time after he reached the age of fifteen, Reuel 
took the place of toll -gatherer for the Augusta 
Bridge, which was completed in 17'JS. and in this 
way aided his father in the support of his large 
family, while his leisure time was carefully husbanded 
in study. At this period he gained the attention 
and acquaintance of Judge James Bridge, a gentle- 
man distinguished for many noble qualities of char- 
acter, and at that time a most prominent lawyer of 
the Kennebec Bar. By invitation of Mr. Bridge. 
young Williams entered his office as a student 
ai law, June 2-3, 1798, when only fifteen years 

old. 

Faithful and industrious, lie earned his support, 
while a student, by writing, and accumulated in 
this way more than one thousand dollars before he 
was nineteen years of age. Judge Bridge then gave 
him an interest in the profits of his law business, 
though he was t<>.. young to hi- admitted to the 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAM& 11 

Bar. He invested his student-life earnings in real 
estate, on the east side of the river, just above the 
bridge, most of which, with improvements on it, he 
owned at the time of his death. 

From the age of nineteen to twenty-one, he busily 
pursued his professional labors with Judge Bridge, 
and on reaching his majority, in 1804, was admitted 
to the Bar, — an event to which he had looked 
forward with all the pride and hope of youthful 
ambition. 

At this time two fellow-students invited him to 
join them in their proposed expedition to Cincin- 
nati, for the practice of the law. The rising fame 
of this new city had already begun to attract the 
attention of the enterprising young men of the 
Eastern States. Mr. Williams held this matter care- 
fully under advisement, but finally declined the pro- 
posal, and deliberately set himself down for life in 
the town of his birth; — a decision that forms a 
striking exception in the history of the public men 
of this country. 1 

1 In his latter days Mr. Williams was fond of making inquiries as to 
the history of Cincinnati, and as to the particular causes of the extraor- 
dinary growth of the Queen City of the West. He was of the same age 
as Nicholas Longworth, now the wealthiest citizen of the great West, 
who, a lawyer by profession, has shown an enlightened judgment worthv 
of his great success, and to whom, more than any one else, Cincinnati 
owes that success in the strawberry and grape culture, which are among 
the attractions of that great city, now so renowned for the wealth, refine- 
ment, and public spirit of its citizens. Had Mr. Williams established 
himself at Cincinnati at the age of twenty-one, and experienced the 
same good fortune which attended him at home, his wealth would have 
been equal to that of Astor. 

Note. — Mr. Longworth died February 10, 1863, since the above was 



12 MEMOIR OF HON. KEUEL WILLIAMS. 

It was fortunate for the city of Augusta, that Mr. 
Williams determined to remain; for to him, mainly. 
is the city indebted for its political and commercial 
importance. In his early days. Hallowell was the 
chief town of the Kennebec; but aided by his exer- 
tions, Augusta, without any peculiar natural advan- 
tage, became the exclusive seat of justice of the 
county, and finally the State Capital, where the legis- 
lative sessions have been held since 1832. In the 
train of these events, came the location of the Ken- 
nebec Arsenal, on which the United States Govern- 
nu'iit have expended, to June 30, 1SG0. $265,846.9] ; 
the establishment of the Insane Hospital; and the 
vast influence and power which its central position. 
and this centralization of talent and capital, have 
given to Augusta; — a city of less population and 
wealth than some others in the State, yet superior, 
in the ability of its press, and the sagacious fore- 
sight of its public men, — in many respects the lead- 
in- place in the State, and second in all these 
particulars to no capital city of the country, of 
similar relations. 

From the time of Mr. Williams's admission to the 
Bar in 1804. he became identified with Augusta, and 
his life forms a pari of its history. No work of 
public importance, and no enterprise affecting the 
Kennebec Valley, was carried forward without his 
direct participation in it. from that time till his 
death, extending over a period <>f uearly sixty years. 

written, with a fortune estimated, by himself in 185!), at licelre million 

dollars. 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 13 

His business life comprised a period of more than 
sixty years, dating from the time he became partner 
with Judge Bridge. 

Judge Bridge had for years been the agent of the 
Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase, an association 
of gentlemen of wealth, who bought of the grantees 
of the Plymouth Company the tract granted Janu- 
ary 13, 1629, to William Bradford, by the Council 
of New England, extending from the Cobbossee 
Contee to Nequamkike, (Hazard Coll. vol. i. p. 298.) 
It was farmed out by the Plymouth Company for 
many years, and quite fully peopled in 1650 and 
1651, when Father Dreuilletts came to Cushnoc on 
his fruitless mission of peace to the New England 
Colonists. On the 27th of October, 1661, the Ply- 
mouth Company conveyed their interests to one 
Thomas Winslow, through whom the title came to 
the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase. 

The agency of this company was itself a large 
business, in the investigation of titles to real estate, 
in sales to be made, and proceeds to be collected. 
The numerous decisions in the Massachusetts and 
Maine Reports show r the great variety of difficult and 
novel law questions affecting titles to real property, 
growing out of this business, to which the attention 
of Mr. Williams was directed. 

" In 1807, when but twenty-four years of age," 
according to the statement of one familiar with his 
life, " Mr. Williams was brought to the notice of 
prominent men in Massachusetts, while engaged with 
Nathan Dane, in Boston, for the Plymouth Proprie- 

2 



14 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS 

tors, before the Commissioners of Eastern Lands. 
UN engagement occupied him six consecutive weeks; 
and although he was junior counsel, he was highly 
complimented by the Commissioners on his thorough 
and profound legal knowledge, and the clearness and 
ability with which he presented and managed his 

case." 

On the 19th of November, 1807, Mr. Williams mar- 
ried Miss Sarah Lowell Cony, daughter of the late 
Hon. Daniel Cony, of Augusta, a man distinguished 
in his day for his public spirit, manly virtues, and 
great activity in promoting the separation of Maine 
from Massachusetts. Mrs. Williams still survives 
him. Their golden wedding was celebrated more 
than four years before his death, with that quiet 
grace and dignity that always held sway in their 
happy home, where children and grandchildren 
joined in pleasant festivities in the venerable man- 
sion, which had so long been the abode of domestic 
j«)\ and undiminished affection. 

( )f their nine children, one son and eight daughters, 
five -till survive. The proprieties of this occasion 
forbid us from entering the dome-tie circle or antici- 
pating any future eulogium. 

In 1811, we firsl find Mr. Williams's name in the 
Massachusetts Reports, as counsel in a law question, 
in opposition to Judge Wilde, then one of the leading 
lawyers of the Kennebec Bar. and subsequently, t'<>r 
many years a judge of the Supreme Judicial Court 

of Massachusetts. From IS 11 onward, for nearly 

thirty years, until he relinquished practice, on taking 






MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 18 

his seat in the Senate of the United States, Mr. Wil- 
liams's name constantly occurs in the Reports, both 
Massachusetts and Maine, in important law cases. 

In 1812, Judge Bridge, having accumulated an 
abundant fortune, retired from practice, leaving Mr. 
Williams in full receipt of the emoluments of their 
large business. Up to this time, the arguing of law 
questions had been chiefly performed by Judge 
Bridge, — while the office duties and labors devolved 
mainly on Mr. Williams, who was compelled to throw 
his whole strength into the work, in order to per- 
form the routine of daily business. His studies, 
therefore, necessarily ran to particular questions and 
pending cases rather than to elementary works, and 
his learning as a lawyer was more the result of a 
large practice, calling for the investigation of points 
of law bearing on his own cases, than any arranged 
plan of study. He was not, therefore, a man of ex- 
tensive law reading, beyond the investigation and 
preparation for argument of cases in court. This 
course of study gives great sharpness and clearness 
of legal vision. He always argued closely and logi- 
cally without the forms of logic. His power of 
analysis and of methodical arrangement was re- 
markable, and contributed greatly to his eminent 
success. 

In addition to his large practice growing out of 
the agency of the Kennebec Purchase, he bad the 
charge of the Bowdoin Lands, a very large and valu- 
able property, which he managed witb admirable 
skill. He also had a large miscellaneous practice in 



1G MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

which the faithful discharge of his duties was ever 
conspicuous. His addresses to the jury, as well as 
to the court, were free from any attempt at rhetori- 
cal display, but remarkable for power of condensa- 
tion, concentration, and directness of argument, and. 
though usually brief, were effective and convincing. 
He was so intensely occupied in his professional 
labors for many years, without time for study out- 
side them, that he was more a man of business than 
a man of books. But his reputation as a lawyer be- 
came widely known, and in 1815. when but thirty- 
two years of age, he was honored by Harvard Col- 
lege with the degree of Master of Arts. In 1855. the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred 
on him by Bowdoin College. 

In 1816, in conjunction with Judge Bridge and 
Thomas L. Winthrop, of Boston, Mr. Williams be- 
came the purchaser of the lands, property, and re- 
maining interests of the Kennebec Proprietors. This 
proved a very profitable investment, so rapid at thai 
time was the settlement of the country. All tin- 
papers of the Proprietors, of very great historic 
value, came into his possession, and since his death, 
in pursuance of his wishes, have been placed in the 
archives of the Maine Historical Society for safe keep- 
ing and use. 

In ISIS Mr. Williams was one of the corporators 
named in the charter of "The Lincoln and Kenne- 
bec Society for the Removal of Obstructions in 
the Kennebec River," approved February L9, L818, 
and it is in and liv the Act made his duty to 



MEMOIR OF HON. 11EUEL WILLIAMS. 17 

call its first meeting, — showing him to have been 
the active promoter of its objects. This matter of 
improving the navigation of the Kennebec was al- 
ways an object of his thoughts, before and while a 
member of the United States Senate. Appropria- 
tions to the amount of $21,100 have been expended 
b}^ the United States Government for removing ob- 
structions in Kennebec River, at Lovejoy's Narrows ■ 
$1,500 for a monument at Stage Island ; and $5,750 
for monuments in the Kennebec River. The sum of 
$45,288.56 has been expended in the construction 
of Seguin Light, in which is a first-class Fresnel 
Lens, and $6,236 on Pond Island Light, at the mouth 
of the Kennebec. 

The separation of Maine from Massachusetts was 
a question in which, as is well known, Mr. Williams 
took an active part, giving it his earnest and effective 
support. In 1822 he became a member of the Legis- 
lature of Maine, and continued so for seven succes- 
sive years: a member of the House in 1822-3-4-5; 
and of the Senate in 1826-7-8 ; during which time 
he was the active and efficient leader in the move- 
ment to make Augusta the State Capital. He was 
also a member of the House in 1829 and 1832, and 
again in 1848. To him has always been awarded 
the credit of the removal of the seat of government 
from Portland. Of the wisdom of the measure itself 
it is not my province to speak. Many citizens of the 
State deemed the removal premature and uncalled 
for. But the prevalence of this feeling only en- 
hances the credit due to his talent and industry, for 

2* 



18 MEMOIR OF HON. BEUEL WILLIAMS. 

its achievement) against such odds. He regarded 
the question of the location of the seat of govern- 
ment as one addressed to the common-sense and 
judgment of the Legislature, and labored for it with 
a zeal and pertinacity that finally overcame every 
obstacle. 

In 1S22 Mr. Williams was elected one of the Trus- 
tees of Bowdoin College, which office he retained for 
thirty-eight years. He was ever one of the most 
faithful and devoted friends of the Institution, and a 
constant attendant on the meetings of the Board till 
his resignation in 18G0. He always looked with re- 
gret on the effort to transform this ancient and hon- 
ored Institution of learning, whose catholic spirit and 
liberal principles had secured for it so much popular 
favor and such valuable aid from the State, into a 
sectarian school, under the exclusive control of one 
religious sect. 

In 1822 Mr. Williams was one of the fort [/-nine 
corporate members of the Maine Historical Society, 
named in the Act establishing it. He had little 
time to devote to historical studies or pursuits, but 
he was always a faithful and consistent member, 
favoring with his intluence the liberal grant of aid 
from the State, and paying his annual tax in early 
days, when a tax on its members was the only means 
of keeping up the Society. 

On the loth of February. L825. Mr. Williams was 
appointed one of the Commissioners of Maine to 
divide the Public Lands, held in common witli Mas- 
sachusetts, under the An of Separation, a most ardu- 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 19 

ous and delicate trust, which he discharged with his 
accustomed intelligence and fidelity. 

On the 26th of January, 1829, an event occurred 
which deeply affected Mr. Williams, exerting no 
small influence over his subsequent life, — the death 
of his daughter, Susan Curtis Williams, whose rare 
beauty, uncommon intelligence, devoted affection, 
and religious turn of mind, had made her an object 
of unusual regard in their wide family circle. The 
death of this daughter struck deeply to the very 
fountain of feeling, and seemed to soften his very 
nature. At times, within the last year of his life, he 
seemed to enjoy the opportunity of speaking of this 
child, describing her as possessing a purity of nature 
and a religious principle higher than he had else- 
where witnessed. An intimate friend of this daugh- 
ter, of the same age, between whom and herself one 
of those mutual attachments had sprung up, which 
sometimes appear romantic, — survived her many 
years ; and for her Mr. Williams always exhibited 
and expressed great kindness and regard. After her 
death, he followed with his good will the husband 
who survived her. He has been heard to speak of 
this exhibition of friendship of these young girls, as 
to him one of the most charming and delightful of 
his memories. This was the more remarkable in 
him, from his naturally reserved manner. lie rarely 
spoke of himself, had few confidants, and gave out 
sparingly the expression of his feelings. His talent 
for silence, that rarest and most valuable of all men- 
tal endowments, was seldom equalled. 



20 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

On the 27th of March. 1831, Mr. Williams was 
appointed Commissioner of Public Buildings, and 

superintended the completion of the Capitol, till it 
was fitted for the use of the State Government 
ami the legislative sessions. This chaste and beauti- 
ful edifice is a monument to his taste and good judg- 
ment It is so constructed that, if the public exi- 
gencies call for more ample accommodation-, the 
hall of the House may be appropriately given up 
to the State Library, and better rooms for the Senate 
and the House provided, by extending wings in 
the rear, which are said to be called for by archi- 
tectural rules, to give symmetry and proportion 
to the whole edifice. This statement is due to 
Mr. Williams's reputation, and to the professional 
experts under whose guidance it was originally 
planned. 

On the 10th of May, 1832, Mr. Williams was 
appointed Commissioner of Maine, with Hon. W. P. 
Preble and Hon. Nicholas Emery, in reference to the 
Northeastern Boundary. In the discharge of this 
trust, he made his first acquaintance with President 
Jackson. Mr. Williams was originally a Federalist, 
and he naturally fell into the support of John Quiney 
Adams in the campaign of L825, and voted for him 
in L8201 But on the election of General Jackson he 
expressed his determination to support his adminis- 
tration as far as consistenl with his own sense of 
riffhl ; and he became identified from that time with 

the Democratic party down to the time of the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, during the administra- 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 21 

tion of Franklin Pierce, which act he regarded as the 
commencement of troubles, and openly and unquali- 
fiedly condemned, though an earnest supporter of 
Pierce's election. 

In the discharge of the duties of this embarrassing 
Boundary Commission, Mr. Williams found in General 
Jackson those qualities of sincerity and frankness, 
that straightforward sense of justice, that won his 
confidence and his heart. When asked, during his 
last visit to Washington, to give his impressions of 
General Jackson, he invited the inquirer to walk to 
the President's Square and look at the statue of 
Jackson. " That statue," said he, pointing to Mills's 
equestrian statue, " gives you a better idea of Jack- 
son than any portrait or any description you can 
find of him." In reply to the criticisms of a friend 
on Jackson's public conduct, he used to say Jackson 
was about the only person he ever knew who acted 
upon his own sense of right. Admitting his rude 
education, and that lack of self-control which can 
only be acquired by men of strong will in early life, 
he said, u he saw that Jackson's desire was to do 
right." In the negotiations, the Maine Commission- 
ers, in 1832, spoke of public opinion on the subject 
of this treaty. " Public opinion ! What is public 
opinion ?" said Jackson. " Right is public opinion. 
I am public opinion when I do right." 

Jackson was deeply anxious to effect, at that time, 
a settlement of this boundary dispute, but he could 
not fail to see the absurdity of the Dutch King's 
decision. But, said he, ''what can I do? The award 



22 MEMOIR OF HON. EEUEL WILLIAMS. 

is not right, but what will come of the question if we 
reject it?" As this matter ever after occupied a 
large share of Mr. Williams's thoughts, and became 
the subject of his principal speeches in Congress, it 
is needful to state the question briefly, in detail, in 
order to show the manner in which Mr Williams 
presented it to Congress, and pressed the matter to 
a final settlement. 

The history of the Northeastern Boundary Dis- 
pute goes back to the first occupation of the Con- 
tinent by Europeans. France and England claimed 
the whole of Maine, starting together in 1602, in 
plans of colonization. Both granted it, with other 
territory, to their respective subjects, the French 
King, November 8, 1603, and the British mon- 
arch, April 10, 1606. The French settled at St. 
Croix in 1004. and the English at Sabino, August 
19, O. S. 1607, from which time the Sagadahoc 
became the recognized boundary, though the Eng- 
lish established trading - houses east of it. In 
Cromwell's time, he granted the country east of 
Sagadahoc to Sir Thomas Temple, and the country 

was peopled by the English. The French held the 
country east, under the name of Acadia, and the St. 
George River became practically the dividing line, 
after Sir Thomas Temple occupied east of Saga- 
dahoc, as stated by Cardillac in his Memoir of L692, 
lint in L697,a1 the Peace of Ixyswick. the St. Croix 
became the boundary between Acadia on the west, 
and New-England on the east. 

There WM no recognized dividing line tor the 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 23 

interior, between the French and English settle- 
ments. The French planting on the St. Lawrence, 
in 1608, pushed back but a short distance from the 
river, and the English settlements were mainly along 
the Atlantic shore. Between the St. Lawrence and 
Lake Champlain, and east of it, to the Connecticut, 
the forty-fifth parallel of latitude became the divid- 
ing line. The conquest of Canada, in 1759, led to 
new colonial governments; and, in 1TG3, after the 
Definitive Treaty of Peace, the new r District of Que- 
bec was established, and the line — designed to em- 
brace the territory acquired — followed the natural 
boundary, the ridge, or rain-shed, between the St. 
Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. The whole coun- 
try then belonged to England, and the most simple 
and natural boundary was established by her, be- 
tween her ancient possession, New England, and 
the newly-acquired territory of New France. 

In the War of the Revolution New England fell 
into the new Government of the United States, while 
New France remained to England. In defining the 
line of boundary, the Treaty of Peace of 1783 fol- 
lowed the line established in 1763. Before the 
necessary work of running and marking this line 
was finished, w r ar broke out between England and 
the ignited States, and the value, for military pur- 
poses, of a line of communication in the St. John 
valley, between the Upper and Lower Provinces, was 
then made apparent. Thereupon, England seized 
upon this territory, and refused to further run or 
mark the line, as agreed. In the Treaty of Ghent, a 



24 MEMOIR OF BON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

provision for arbitration was unfortunately agreed 
to by our Government, and. after declining all other 
proposals. Great Britain had the Dutch King ap- 
pointed umpire during the administration of John 
Quincy Adams. His decision was, that there was no 
ridge, or rain-shed, separating the waters flowing in 
different directions, and therefore advised that the 
bed of the St. John River be adopted for the boun- 
dary. Jackson thought best, if possible, to induce 
Maine to consent to this decision, by offering com- 
pensation. Subsequent results have proved the wis- 
dom of his proposal, for no State, prior to the recent 
rebellion, had ever been able to accomplish any- 
thing in opposition to the power of the Federal 
Government. 

The Maine Commissioners were made the medium 
of an offer by Gen. Jackson, but the rejection of this 
award by the Senate made their report valueless, 
and it remained unopened till the change of parties 
in Maine, in 1838, led to its publication. Mr Wil- 
liams saw this "involved question" as it was called, in 
its true and simple aspeet. despite the accumulated 
mass of confused diplomatic correspondence on the 
subject for so many years. He took this simple 
position: "It is a question of boundary: run and 
mark the line, following out the words of the Treaty." 
This view of the question determined his future 
course in the Senate, and his persistent adherence to 
that poli<y forced a final settlement of the question. 

It has been the fashion of the newspapers to echo 
the statements of British diplomatists, that "the 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 25 

Treaty of 1783 left this question of boundary in- 
volved in obscurity," and some politicians of our own 
and other States readily fell into this notion, from 
indifference or an unwillingness to investigate the 
question itself. Any "obscurity" in the matter is 
much like that which an intelligent traveller would 
foil into, in crossing the Alps from France into Italy. 
in his efforts to discover a ridge on the way where 
Hannibal and Napoleon made attempts to solve the 
problem in the face of obstacles that made their ex- 
ploits so famous. And we can hardly refrain from giv- 
ing utterance to an expression of self-reproach as we 
call to mind the timidity of our own State, in finally con- 
senting to so monstrous a folly as the subsequent sur- 
render of so invaluable a possession on such a pretext. 

The award of the Dutch King having been re- 
jected by the Senate, no call was then made on 
Maine for her assent, and no progress made in the 
adjustment of the question, till after Mr. Williams's 
election to the Senate of the United States. 

On the 22d of February, 1837, Mr Williams, then 

in the fifty-fourth year of his age, was elected, by 

the Legislature of Maine, to the Senate of the 

United States, for the term of two years, to fill the 

unexpired term of Hon. Ether Shepley, appointed 

one of the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court 

of Maine. Mr Williams's term commenced on the 

4th of March, 1837. He took his seat in the Senate 

at the extra session, on the 4th of September, 1837. 

He was placed on the Committees of Naval Affairs 

and of Roads and Canals. 
3 



20 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

His senatorial career gives him his chief claim to 
a national reputation. It was distinguished for it- 
independence of party and its devotion to the inter- 
ests of the whole country, not forgetting the claims 
of his own State. He entered Congress at the most 
gloomy period of our history since the war with 
England in 1812. 

The exhaustion of individual and national re- 
sources, by the War of 1812, brought, with peace, 
political quiet at home, till in 1820 the Blavery 
agitation, growing out of the admission of Missouri 
into the Union, gave to the thoughtful men of that 
time the first intimation of our present troubles, 
and this feeling kept alive a spirit of alarm. The 
war with England had stimulated party animosity 
throughout the country, and. under the influence of 
thai feeling, able, ambitious men came into Congress, 
unschooled in the principles of the Revolutionary 
period. After the Peace of 1815, a new direction 
was to be given to public affairs. The lack of 
foreign topic- to engross our public men. as hereto- 
fore, naturally directed their thoughts toward the 
Presidency, making the gratification of personal am- 
bition the chief object of statesmanship; and the 
election of IS2 1 disclosed a number of candidates 
for the Presidency, without any apparent difference 
of opinion upon public measures. The personal pret- 
ermit- of Mr. (May for John Quincy Adam- gave 
the country that (intractable administration which 
sought to govern without a policy, and to dispense 
with the ordinary fidelity of party support The 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 27 

opposition united and elected Gen. Jackson, and 
under his iron rule, during his eight years, changed 
the administrative policy of the country; and the 
nation seemed ready to pass from a Constitutional 
Republic to a Democratic Despotism, in spite of the 
most powerful opposition under the combined leader- 
ship of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun. The contest 
was fierce and violent during Jackson's administra- 
tion. Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Preston, Berrien, and 
others contended for certain principles of constitu- 
tional government, and for restraints upon executive 
power ; while Jackson and his supporters maintained 
the absolutism of the Presidential will over all sub- 
ordinate officers of the Government, He removed 
the deposits in opposition to the opinions of the 
Congress, and retained his appointees against the 
recorded judgment of the Senate as a part of the 
appointing power. 

The popularity of Jackson swept over the mosl 
powerful opposition ever organized under our Gov- 
ernment, and in 1836, with Van Buren's election, 
there came into Congress an array of talent un- 
equalled in any other period of our history, in which 
Mr. Williams was to act his part. The administra- 
tion of Van Buren placed its claims to support upon 
the question of finance and currency, then the ab- 
sorbing topic of the day, and was soon joined by Mr. 
Calhoun, who gave to the Independent Treasury 
scheme his unqualified Bupport The defection of 
Mr. Calhoun and his followers from the Opposition 
gave a more personal turn to the debate- of the 



•JS MEMOIE OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

Twenty-fifth Congress than before, and the contests 
between Mr. Webster and Mr. Calhoun are un- 
equalled for brilliant declamation, logical acumen, 
and oratorical power, in parliamentary history. A- 
before remarked, the traditionary policy of the conn- 
trv had been overturned by the reelection of An- 
drew Jackson. The Secession troubles of that period 
were temporarily healed or abated, under the enact- 
ment of the Compromise Tariff of 1833, and the 
large importations of 1835 and 1836 aggravated the 
coining troubles — ending in the wide-spread com- 
mercial revulsion of 1837. Individual and national 
bankruptcy was staring every one in the (ace. and 
the new President, Van Buren, summoned an extra 
session of Congress, on account of the suspension of 
specie payments by the banks, and the inability of 
the Administration to carry on the Government, 
without further legislation by Congress. 

This extra session accomplished but little or noth- 
ing in the way ol* public legislation, for the opinion 
of a majority of Congress was not in unison with 
that of the President on the questions of Finance 
and the Independent Treasury. Mr. Williams stead- 
fastly supported the Administration in its financial 
policy, though from his habits of mind and course of 
life strongly opposed to any sudden or radical change 
of measures. At this time a man of wealth, having 
been many years interested in a bank, and free from 
all sympathy with the vindictive hatred of hanks 
which characterized so many politicians in Congress. 
he yet felt that the circumstances of the country 



MEMOIB OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 29 

justified the plan of an Independent Treasury, dis- 
pensing altogether with the aid <>(' hanks, providing 
a set of officers to take charge of the public money? 
and requiring moreover the payment of all public 
dues exclusively in specie. 

As an original question, few men of high intelli- 
gence doubted the wisdom of the measure, but the 
certainty that it must work an entire revolution in 
the mode of conducting public business, and largely 
diminish the value of property, excited the most in- 
tense and powerful opposition, and it was only finally 
carried through in 1840, after the most determined 
enforcement of party discipline. A political revolu- 
tion was the consequence. But the country acqui- 
esced in the measure, and the subsequent attempt of 
Mr. Clay and his friends to change this policj', and 
return to that of a United States Bank, alienated 
President Tyler from the Whig party, and led to its 
subsequent defeat, 

Mr. Williams saw the practical results of this 
measure clearly, and from the start, and advised and 
supported the Bill of the extra session, and the Bill 
introduced on the 26th of January, 1838, by the 
Hon. Silas Wright, of New- York, — between whom 
and Mr. Williams the utmost cordiality always ex. 
isted, — and supported the Independent Treasury Act 
of 1840 which became a law. 

Mr. Williams's first net of importance in Congress 
was the Resolution, submitted by him on the l-'lth 
of October, 1837, in reference to the Northeastern 
Boundary, in the words following : — 



30 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

•• lusnlml. That the Secretary of War be directed to submit to 
the Senate, al as early a day a- practicable, a plan for the protec- 
tion of the northern and eastern frontiers of the United States, de- 
Bignating the points to be permanently occupied by garrisons; the 
auxiliary stations for reserves, and deposits of munitions and other 
BUpplies ; the routes to be established for the purpose of maintain- 
ing a safe and prompt intercourse between the several stations, and 
from these with the depots in the interior; and finally, the mini- 
mum force which, in his opinion, will be required to maintain the 
peace of the country." 

His subsequent labors on this matter, hereafter 
referred to, were abundant, arduous, and effective, 
and form no unimportant part of our national his- 
tory. 

At the regular session of the Twenty-fifth Con- 
gress, on the 4th of December, 1837. Mr. Williams 
was placed on the Committee on Naval Affairs, and 
on that for the District of Columbia. His invalu- 
able labors on the latter committee are still grate- 
fully remembered by the people of Washington. 

On the 20th of December, 1837, he called for 
information as to the survev of the Kennebec River. 

Hut the work of this session for which he is most 
gratefully remembered, and in many respects the 
one mosi deserving of praise in his whole public life. 
\v;i^ his efforl to provide for the relief of the Insane. 
On the 'J'.'th of December. L837, he reported a bill. 
from the Committee on the District of Columbia, 
for the establishment of an Insane Asylum for the 
District of Columbia, and for the Army. Navy, and 
Revenue Service of the United States; and on the 
2d of January, L838, made that brief but able and 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 31 

clear statement of the claims of this class of unfor- 
tunates that satisfied the minds of Senators ; and on 
the 12th of January. 1838, the bill, appropriating 
$75,000 for the purpose of its commencement, 
passed the Senate, and finally became a law. 

This plan of a Government Hospital, thus initi- 
ated, has been carried into execution by one of the 
most worthy and accomplished of all the sons that 
Maine has sent forth into the field of duty, Dr. 
Charles H. Nichols, a native of Yassalboro, in our 
State, his father an old friend and client of Mr. 
Williams. Nothing could be more gratifying than 
to observe the almost filial devotion of Dr. Nichols 
to his faithful friend; and Mr. Williams, with equal 
gratification, witnessed his success, and saw. in 1861, 
the completion of his plans for this great work. The 
success of the Government Hospital for the Insane is 
admitted to be due to the ability, prudence, fidelity, 
and good sense of its accomplished Superintendent, 
who has guided all the expenditures, from the pur- 
chase of the ground to the erection and completion 
of the building, — which is, undoubtedly, more perfect 
in its structure, its architectural plan and interna] 
arrangements, than any similar one in tin- country. 
Its farm, on the eastern shore of the Potomac, two 
miles south of the Capitol, contains one hundred and 
ninety-live acres, and the building is seven hundred 
and twenty feet in length. No intelligent stranger 
remains in Washington for a day without visit inn 
this noble institution. 

Equally praiseworthy were Mr. Williams's exer- 



32 MEMOIK OF HON. KEUEL WILLIAMS 

t Ions, in conjunction with Benjamin Brown, Esq., of 
Vassalboro, for providing relict' for the unfortunate 

insane of our own State. He made a donation of 
ten thousand dollars toward the foundation of the 
Maine Insane Hospital, and ever watched it- success 

with parental care. In their late Report, the Trus- 
tees, under date of December 4th. lSOli. sa v : — 

u Since the last meeting of the Trustees, one of the early bene- 
factors and founders of this institution has been called to his rest. 
We owe it to the goodness of God that such a man as the Hon. 
Eteuel Williams has lived and labored amongst ns. His name and 
many worthy deeds will long be remembered with respeel and with 
gratitude by multitudes. The fact that the foundations of the hospital 
were laid principally through his liberality, is too well known to 
need any record here. But it may not be so widely known that 
the success and prosperity of the hospital are largely attributable to 
his constant care and watchfulness over its interests from the time 
of its first establishment to the very close of his useful life. For a 
long succession of years Mr. Williams was a leading member of the 
Hoard of Trustees, and was unwearied in his labor- for securing 
the best means for the comfort and cure of all who came within 
these walls. And even after he resigned his seat in the Board, he 
did not cease to show his deep interest in the institution, and in what- 
soever related tu it- prosperity. Often have present members of the 
Board been favored with his judicious suggestions and wise coun- 
sels, that have hern of important assistance to them in the respon- 
sible trust committed to their hand-. While, therefore, we would 
bow with reverent submission to the All-wise Disposer of all thing-. 
in the bereavement which has befallen us, we would also, with 
gratitude to the same great Being, cherish the memory of our 
departed friend and councillor, and strive to imitate his virtues." 



The Superintendent^ in his Report) uses the fol- 
ding language : — 

• It may be well to allude in this connection to the loss the hos- 






MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 33 

pita! lias sustained in the death of one of its founders and largest 
private benefactors. In the decease of Hon. Reuel Williams, a 
wide gap has been made in the circle of friends of the insane. 
Early he beheld the wretched condition of this unfortunate class; 
his eve pitied, and forth from his beneficence flowed that which 
laid the foundation-pillars of this noble structure. With a father's 
care he watched over the interests of the hospital from its begin- 
ning, spending days of his valuable time in devising means to pro- 
mote the comfort and well-being of those who had fallen victims to 
this worst of human ills, and had come hither for relief. For 
more than fifteen years he was an active member of the Board of 
Trustees. performing much of the heavy work which devolved upon 
the Board, without ever receiving a dollar of compensation for his 
labor ; and when advancing years admonished him that it was time 
to lay aside the cares of public business, and he resigned the office 
of Trustee, yet his interest in the institution did not abate. Often 
his thoughts reverted to it, and his steps were directed hither, 
where his counsel and advice were freely given to facilitate the 
best good of the Asylum. And now, though he rests from his 
labors, though his tongue lies silent in the grave, he yet speaks to 
us, saying: ' Be kind to the unfortunate and afflicted.'" 

On the 2d of February, 1838, Mr. Williams sub- 
mitted in the Senate the following resolution : — 

o 

" Resolved, That the President of the United States be, and he 
hereby is requested to communicate to the Senate, in such manner 
as he may deem proper, all the correspondence recently received 
and had between this and the Government of Great Britain, and 
the State of Maine, on the subject of the Northeastern Boundary, 
which, in his opinion, may be communicated consistently with the 
public welfare." 

This resolution was considered and agreed to, Feb- 
ruary 5th, 1838. 

He made his great speeches on this question on 
the 14th of May. L838, and on the 18th of June, 
1838. These speeches, and others on the same 



34 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

subject in 1842. are worthy of republication, as spe- 
cimens of effective public speaking. The "Bangor 
Democrat," speaking of the speech of May 14th. 
Bays: — u Reuel Williams delivered in the Senate a 
speech, evincing great research, perfect knowledge 
of the subject, and remarkable power." 

On the 22d of December, 1838, Mr. Williams sub- 
mitted the following resolution, which was considered 
and adopted : — 

" Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to communi- 
cate to the Senate such information as may be in his possession in 
reference to the defence of the frontier of Maine, and the number 
of troops now employed within the State, and the p<>-t< at which 
they are stationed." 

He opposed the Treaty of Washington, and in 
-'•cret session, when its ratification took place, he 
moved its rejection, and that our Government cause 
the line to be run and marked, according to the 
stipulations of the former treaty. 

The consummation of this treaty was to him a 
severe persona] and political mortification, and his 
failure to prevent its ratification was one of the re- 
grets of his life. In reply to an inquiry why he did 
not defeat it. he said : — " I depended on Judge Preble. 

Be pledged to me his word that he would not give 
his assent to it. 1 thought 1 could depend on Judge 
Preble, and I left Washington for a short visit to the 
Virginia Springs, with an invalid daughter, thinking 
the matter safe, and that the assent of the Maine 
Commissioners would not be given to it. On my 
return to Washington, 1 (bund the .Maine Commis- 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 35 

sioners, after preparing a statement of reasons for 
their refusal, had signed their names, consenting to the 
treaty, Preble with the rest, and had left for home. 
The matter had then got beyond the reach of any 
power of mine." 

Mr. Williams's speech in secret session, in opposi- 
tion to its ratification, was only an indignant protest 
against a foregone conclusion, and he bore in silence 
the imputation attempted to be cast on him, of a 
want of frankness in relation to this measure, rather 
than shield his reputation by a profitless attack and 
discomfiture of those on whom the real responsibility 
rested. 

But it is a credit to Mr. Williams that he saw in 
advance what every one now so fully understands 
and admits, not excepting the geographers and 
statesmen of England, — the entire absurdity and 
falsity of the British claim. 

Mr. Williams was reelected to the Senate in 1839, 
for the term of six years from the 4th of March, 
1839, but he retained his seat only six years in all, 
during the sessions of the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, 
and Twenty-seventh Congress, resigning in 1843, on 
account of the magnitude of his private interests, 
and his indifference to the honors of public life. 

It is the reproach of our system of government, in 
the estimation of intelligent foreigners, that we have 
no statesmen in public life, because men pursue 
politics as a trade, from motives of personal ambi- 
tion, or as a means of livelihood. It is said that we 
have no retiring age for public men; that, after going 



36 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

through the routine of Congressional life, men turn 
up as candidates for Door-keeper, or appear as lobby- 
ists in the pay of contractors, or turn contractors 
themselves. 

It is pleasant to turn to the example of Mr. Wil- 
liams, as a. reply to this satire. Although so many 
years in public life, in such varieties of service, he 
never -ought office, and never accepted it but in 
subordination to a sense of duty ; and he laid down 
his office or surrendered his trust the instant the 
duty assigned him was performed. A public and a 
private trust he considered equally sacred. In the 
National and State councils, in the several commis- 
sions he held, and in the management of the various 
public duties confided to him. his time and his best 
efforts were as conscientiously and fully devoted, as 
when engaged in an important lawsuit for an exact- 
ing client. 

The character of this brief Memoir, and the length 
to which it is already drawn, forbid more extended 
comment on Mr. Williams's senatorial career, which 
was distinguished throughout by marked ability, and 
his accustomed fidelity and independence. Some 
acts, however, deserve especial mention as indicating 
his superiority t<> party. He opposed Mr. Calhoun's 
amendment to the Enlistment Bill, which first pro- 
hibited the enlistment of blacks in the naval service; 
and he made a speech in favor of. and voted for, the 
Tariff of L842, the great Whig measure of the 
Twenty-seventh Congress, which, but for his \«.te. 
would have been defeated. To Senator Bagby, of 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 37 

Alabama, who made a coarse and abusive speech, in 
the style of that time by the extreme Southern men, 
against the people of New England, Mr. Williams 
coolly replied, telling the Senator from Alabama 
that, unfortunately, he knew nothing of the people 
against whom he addressed his remarks, or he would 
not be guilty of such an act of injustice. 

Although a party man, Mr. Williams never threw 
a strictly party vote, or, in other words, he voted 
according to his convictions of duty, and would not 
surrender his judgment to any party. He did what 
he thought was right, and voted against his party on 
all questions whenever, in his opinion, they were in 
error. He fearlessly opposed the Annexation of 
Texas, and predicted that it would result in a disso- 
lution of the Union or a protracted civil war, an 
event he lived to witness. 

A good illustration of Mr. Williams's character is 
shown in his course on the question of legislative in- 
structions. On accepting the Senatorship, he avowed 
his belief in the binding force of instructions, and de- 
clared that in case he could not obey the instructions 
of the Legislature, he would resign. In 1841 the 
Maine Legislature, being Whig in politics, passed 
resolutions referring to Mr. Williams's pledge, and 
instructing him, in general terms, to vote for Whig 
measures or resign. Mr. Williams presented these 
resolutions to the Senate, and in a speech, distin- 
guished for its clearness of statement and logical pre- 
cision, laid down the true rule as to instructions, and 
declared his readiness to vote for any specific meas- 

4 



38 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

lire required of him, or resign ; but he failed to find 
anything in the resolutions sufficiently definite to 
act upon. This ended the matter of instructions, for 
no attempt to instruct him on any particular question 
or measure was afterward made, and his exposition 
may be fairly regarded as the admitted doctrine on 
that oft-mooted question of former times. 

In retiring from the Senate, Mr. Williams left it 
with the cordial good-will of all its members. A dis- 
tinguished contemporary, speaking to us of his Sena- 
torial career, uses the following language : — 

" I knew Mr. Williams well whilst he and I were together mem- 
bers of the United States Senate. It was then eomposed of some 
of the greatest minds that ever adorned that or any other legislative 
body. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were conspicuous in that bright 
galaxy of talent by which they were surrounded. Mr. Williams 
held a rank and standing of which his constituents and friends 
might well be proud. He was a member of some of the most im- 
portant committees, and discharged his duties with great ability. 
He investigated a subject thoroughly, and in discussing it was 
always listened to with profound attention. 

" He was decided in his political views, but mild and amiable in 
presenting them. He commanded the respect of all parties, and no 
man's opinions had greater weight than his 00 any question before 
the Senate, when he was known to have brought to bear upon it bis 
great talent for investigation. 

" In his private intercourse he was esteemed and respected by 
all. His political opinions were always so presented as to produce 
no acerbity of feeling on the part of political opponents. He was 
unobtrusive in his manners, conciliating in his general deportment, 
and never felled to command the good opinion ot those with whom 
his personal or business intercourse brought him into contact" 

Those only can have realized the true greatness of 
Mr. Williams, so quietly and unostentatiously did he 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 39 

move among his fellow-men, who saw him in contact 
with other great men, at the Bar, or in the Senate of 
the United States. Here he was the peer of the 
greatest. One of the last, if not the very last cause 
he argued in Court, out of his county, was the cele- 
brated case of Veazie versus Wadleigh, touching cer- 
tain water and shore rights at Old town, on the 
Penobscot, before -the Supreme Court at Bangor, in 
the fall of 1834, where, as counsel for Wadleigh and 
Purinton, he argued their cause with ability and suc- 
cess. He was of counsel for these parties in the sub- 
sequent trial before Judge Story, in the Circuit Court 
of the United States at Wiscasset, with Daniel Web- 
ster, Judge Shepley, Jonathan P. Rogers, and the 
writer of this Memoir. On the other side, Jeremiah 
Mason, Frederic Allen, and W. P. Fessenden appeared 
as counsel. The case involved important interests, 
and excited great attention. More time was occu- 
pied in the few days that this case was before the 
Court, in the consultations of counsel, than in the 
court-room. In these consultations, the most notice- 
able fact of all was the extraordinary deference which 
Mr. Webster paid to Mr. Williams. Although one 
year older than Mr. Williams, and at that time in 
the full flush of success and in the zenith of his 
power as master of eloquence and argument, he 
deferred to Mr. Williams's opinions or suggestions 
as to a superior, although, by long and careful in- 
vestigation and preparation, as fully conversant with 
all the facts, and the law of the case. This high 
estimate of Mr. Williams. Mr. Webster always re- 



40 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

tained, amid all their open conflicts, and their subse- 
quent collisions in public life, growing out of the 
Northeastern Boundary Dispute and the party con- 
tests of the time. 

One who knew him long and well says : — 

" He had a remarkably clear insight into character. Sometimes 
he withheld his confidence, where apparently it might safely have 
been given ; but subsequent events rarely failed to show thai what 
was attributed to prejudice was due only to foresight. Frank, 
honorable, and upright himself, he scorned indirection and trickery 
in another; never idle, and always truthful, he despised a sluggard, 
and detested a liar. His temperament was remarkably calm and 
equable. In the ups and downs of a long and busy life, he was 
rarely elated by gains or depressed by losses. He seemed to view 
the result of whatever he had deliberately undertaken with a philo- 
sophical indifference." 

Mr. Williams's superiority in public life was seen in 
his elevation of purpose and freedom from all inferior 
or unworthy motives. He never considered the effect 
of his vote, or of a measure under consideration, upon 
his party or upon himself. He had no anxiety to 
shape his policy to suit an existing prejudice, or to 
satisfy an unreasonable demand. He had no aspira- 
tions for a higher place, and no desire to retain his 
seat in the Senate beyond the time when he felt he 
had accomplished there what good it was possible for 
him to achieve. As he entered the Senate at a time 
when 1 lie most fearful and gloomy apprehensions 
overspread the nation, amid financial embarrassments 
consequent on unwise tariffs; with commercial credit 
.it its lowest point, and the insane cry against the in- 
troduction of foreign capital echoed far and wide by 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 41 

the leaders of the Democratic party ; he knew that 
the only mode of sustaining public credit was by the 
enactment of a Protective Tariff; and the only method 
of giving value to property and diffusing prosperity 
among the people was by allowing unfortunate debt- 
ors to go free under a General Bankrupt law, while 
proper encouragement was given to home industry. 
He remained in Congress to vote for these measures, 
in opposition to the popular feeling of his party, and 
he boldly stood up for what he thought was right, 
regardless of the clamor of the shallow politicians of 
the hour. He left the Senate after these measures 
were consummated, with the consciousness and the 
conviction that his duties in that field of labor had 
been faithfully and fully performed. 

The example of Mr. Williams, at a period when the 
possession of a place was used as a mere stepping- 
stone to another and a higher one, deserves to be held 
up for admiration in contrast with the prevailing ten- 
dency of the times. No one, or scarcely one, could 
be found in office contented with the discharge of its 
duties ; and we trace to this cause our political 
troubles, the derangements of the currency, the sla- 
very agitation, the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, and its consequent evils culminating in the 
present civil war. 

It will not be thought out of place to refer, in 
this connection, as in striking contrast to Mr. W il- 
liams's example, to a contemporary statesman a few 
months his senior, who departed this life only a few 
hours before Mr. Williams, and who, having passed 

4* 



42 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

through all the gradations of public honors and 
offices — Governor of the Empire State, Senator in 
Congress, Secretary of State, Minister to the Court of 
St. James, Vice-President, and finally President of the 
United States, left on record by his will, dated Janu- 
ary 18, 1860, this memorable confession : — 

u I, Martin Van Buren, of the town of Kinderhook, county of 
Columbia, and State of New York, heretofore Governor of the 
State, and more recently President of the United States, but for the 
last and happiest year of my life a farmer in my native town, do make 
and declare the following to be my last will and testament," &c. 

The fact of Van Buren's election to the Presidency 
gave him no real satisfaction, for his joy was turned 
to sadness, and his cup of happiness poisoned by sub- 
sequent defeats ; and never did he find so much satis- 
faction as in the quiet of rural pursuits. If we recall 
the history of other of Mr. Williams's contemporaries 
in the Senate, — Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Cass, and 
Benton, leaders in those days who never reached the 
Presidency ; or Pierce and Buchanan who did. — we 
shall be struck with the singular infelicity of their 
political career, from disappointments like those of 
Van Buren, or worse results than defeat. 

We esteem it fortunate that an example like that 
of Mr. Williams remains to us, that no feeling of un- 
satisfied political ambition disquieted his subsequent 
life, and that he had the good sense and self-respect 
to decline a seat in the Cabinet, virtually proffered 
him, for which, by his great experience on the Com- 
mittee on Naval Affairs in the Senate and his admi- 
rable executive ability, he was so preeminently 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 43 

qualified. But greater than all was the value of his 
example, in the healthfulness of its tone, in his free- 
dom from those "infirmities of genius" that regard 
imprudence in personal habits, extravagance, and de- 
bauchery as the necessary conditions of public life. 
It was the fault of the time to regard politicians as 
necessarily heedless and improvident, and that for 
them there must be pensions and subscriptions, as if 
such men were not expected to foresee the conse- 
quences of their own weakness and folly. Mr. Wil- 
liams saw all this in its true light, — that the only 
true basis of political power and influence was a lofty 
independence that scorned alike the thought that a 
pension was a mark of honor, or that his party had 
any right to treat him as a hireling and a mendicant. 
Simple in his habits, generous in his mode of living, 
he made no concessions of his personal independence 
to any of the arbitrary and capricious demands of 
fashion or of party, and pursued the even tenor of 
his way, not only in the Senate, but in all his private 
walks to the close of his earthly career. His whole 
life in business, in the family circle, and in public 
station, seemed, in a measure, mechanical, — like a 
well-ordered machine, where each part, obeying its 
organic law, in subordination to a higher principle, 
ran on, with an unvarying and steady movement, till 
it fulfilled its mission, and the fine frame that held 
the informing spirit ceased to move. 

At the ripe age of sixty, in the full strength of his 
intellectual and physical powers, without any m satis- 
fied desire, he resigned his seat in the Senate, with 



44 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

two years more of his term before him. b the full 
expectation of retiring altogether from public service. 
But new labors awaited him. The country rapidly 
recovered from its six years of exhaustion — from 
1836 to 1842 — under the influence of the Tariff of 
1842. and in 1844 the spirit of improvement reached 
Maine, and her people began to entertain the subject 
of railroads. The drain on its population consequent 
on the building of railways and factories in Massa- 
chusetts and elsewhere, with the tendency to emigrate 
West, had begun to draw upon the strength of the 
State, and to excite alarm ; and it was seen and felt 
that, in spite of the limited amount of our realized 
capital, Maine must embark in these improvements 
or fall behind in the race. 

Mr. Williams looked upon these movements as pre- 
mature ; and in the winter of 1843-4. when the proj- 
ect of a railway from Portland to Bath was acted on, 
he took very little if any interest in it. In the 
western portion of the State, an intense and bitter 
hostility to railways had been engendered, by the 
course adopted in the construction of a line into 
Portland by parties residing out of the State, in ex- 
tension of the line from Boston. This feeling had 
full sway in the Legislature of 1844. and no satisfac- 
tory charter could be obtained. Legislation of the 
most hostile character against existing lines of rail- 
way was carried through, in sympathy with the feel- 
ing in New Hampshire. The railway question had 
been made a political party question, the Whigs 
favoring, and the Democratic party opposing. Mr. 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 45 

Williams had no sympathy with this party feeling, 
but he knew the expensive character of railways, and 
saw no means adequate to their immediate construc- 
tion, and that their first effect would be to carry off 
business from the State. 

In the autumn of 1844, when the plan of a railway 
from Montreal to the Atlantic was proposed, the de- 
sign was to have two outlets — one to reach the ocean 
at Portland, and the other, embranching in the An- 
droscoggin Valley at Rumford or Bethel, to extend 
to Augusta, and from thence to Bangor eastward, 
and to Bath. 

The people of Portland promptly fell into the sup- 
port of the project ; those of Augusta disregarded the 
proposal. The Montreal Railway project took im- 
mediate possession of the public mind of the State. 
The "Eastern Argus," the leading organ of the Demo- 
cratic party, took the strongest ground in its sup- 
port, and its conductors made no secret of their 
design to throw party overboard on the railway 
question, and, if need be, break down their party in 
the State on it, rather than longer forego the ad- 
vantages of railroads. 

The result was not long doubtful. The leaders of 
both parties vied with each other in their zeal for 
railways ; and by a single stride, with scarcely any 
opposition, Maine changed front on the railway 
question, and adopted the most liberal policy of any 
State in the Union. This unanimity of sentiment 
was Maine's chief capital ; and thinking men foresaw 
the result, in the sure accomplishment of the great- 



46 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

est public work of the day, taking into account 
its international character, and its influence on the 
course of trade and of public opinion. The geo- 
graphical and commercial importance of Maine was 
in a measure realized by the more intelligent of its 
people. 

The putting of this project into execution led to 
the adoption of another — the extension of a line in 
connection with the Montreal Railroad to Bangor 
and the East. The development of this plan roused 
the lower Kennebec, and her people came forward 
with a renewal of their project — a line of rail- 
way from Portland to Augusta, with a branch to 
Bath. 

These rival movements aroused the whole State, 
including Mr. Williams, who, from his great wealth, 
known sagacity, and public spirit, was necessarily to 
become a leader in them. Yet he held back rather 
than pressed forward at the start. But events 
moved rapidly. An effort to unite all interests in 
the State, by swinging the Trunk Line to Montreal 
as far east as Lewiston, an extension thence to Gar- 
diner and up the Kennebec River, with a branch to 
Brunswick and Bath, failed of success, from the un- 
willingness of Mr. Williams and his associates to de- 
sert the line of policy unfortunately agreed on with 
the leading citizens of Bath and Brunswick. 

Two rival schemes went forward, soon involving a 
war of the gauges, for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence 
Railroad Company and the Androscoggin and Ken- 
nebec Railroad Company adopted an independent 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 17 

guage of five and a half feet, upon the fullest con- 
sideration of its advantages, while the Kennebec and 
Portland Railroad Company adhered to the plan of a 
narrow-gauge line, in view of a connection with the 
line of railway to Boston. 

From the autumn of 1846, the war of rival inter- 
ests was fiercely waged, subordinating nearly all, if 
not every other public question in the State to this, 
till, on the completion of the "Back Route" to Water- 
ville, in advance of the construction of the narrow- 
gauge line to Augusta, Mr. Williams frankly admit- 
ted their great error. He entered the Legislature in 
1848, as the Representative from Augusta, and en- 
deavored to break the chain of charters that held 
in check all extension of railways above Augusta, 
in connection with the narrow gauge, but in this he 
was for the time defeated. He had not over-esti- 
mated his own power, so much as he had undervalued 
the strength of his opponents. He saw clearly the 
disastrous consequences to his own fortune of the 
policy of rival lines, and he frankly inquired for con- 
ditions of peace. Those agreed on were, an aban- 
donment of any purpose to extend a rival line on the 
narrow gauge to Bangor, and the unanimous support 
of a broad-gauge line from Waterville east, with 
suitable arrangements for connection at the point of 
crossing of the narrow-gauge line from Augusta up 
the Kennebec River. 

This arrangement, on his part, was faithfully ob- 
served and kept ; the restriction on the right to ex- 
tend a line from Augusta up the Kennebec River 



48 MEMOIB OF HON. BEUEL WILLIAMS. 

was taken off, and the broad-gauge line was extend- 
ed from Waterville, in connection with the Andros- 
cossin and Kennebec Railroad, to Bangor. 

DO ' '-' 

Mr. Williams took great interest in the project of 
the railway from Bangor to St. John and Halifax, 
attended the celebration at the breaking of ground 
on the European and North-American Railway, at 
St. John, was a director in the Maine corporation, 
and a party to the provisional contract for the con- 
struction of the line through Maine, by Jackson and 
Betts. which fell through from a failure to secure 
the necessary legislation in Maine, on account of the 
opposition of parties interested in the contract for 
building the line from Waterville to Bangor. The 
Crimean War soon after followed, and the people of 
Baiiiror discovered, when it was too late, their error 
in not allowing the granting of a charter, adequate 
to the requirements of the enterprise. But for this 
short-sightedness, the entire capital for the line from 
Waterville to Halifax would have been provided, 
before the European war of 1853-4 had disturbed 
the money market of England. 

This railway war. in our State, has been the pro- 
lific cause of disaster to many a private fortune, and 
embittered, for the time, some sections against 
others. But such is the peculiar eon figuration of 
the State, and BO great was the isolation from each 
other of the various sections before the advent of 
railways, that, from want of unity in purpose and 
plan, it may fairly be doubted if a single line could 
so soon have none forward and been extended to 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 40 

Bangor, or to the Kennebec, but for this rivalry. 
The public, as a whole, were the gainers, but there 
was a painful loss entailed on the original stockhold- 
ers and bondholders. Of this class Mr. Williams 
was the largest loser. He invested of his own for- 
tune more than three hundred thousand dollars, and 
sacrificed more than two thirds of that sum in this 
railroad, to say nothing of the indirect losses that 
followed, and the devotion of more than fifteen 
years of his life. But when the sacrifice had been 
made, he looked philosophically at the result, and 
said : " I do not, on the whole, regret it. I doubt if 
my time and money could have accomplished bo 
much good in any other way." Some things had 
stung him deeply; such as the repudiation of original 
liability, pleaded by way of defence, on a suit on 
coupons, upon certain city bonds which had been 
issued to aid the construction of the Kennebec and 
Portland Railroad, of which he was the President ; 
as if the plea of payment was not sufficient, or all 
that an honorable defence would justify. He also 
felt the injustice of the refusal, by his associates, of 
that support which they had promised him in the 
hour of the greatest pecuniary dilhculties of the 
Railroad Company, in case he gave out his own per- 
sonal obligations, to avoid the sacrifice impending 
over it. But he was too much a man of the world 
to make private griefs public, and suffered in silence 
the consequences of his own generosity ami public 
spirit. 

It is true Mr. Williams had. of necessity, kept a 

5 



50 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

show of courage amid the difficulties that surrounded 
the construction of so expensive a line of railroad, or 
its ruin would have been inevitable. But he refused 
to desert his post, or take any advantage to himself. 
He relied upon that good faith and that sense of 
honor which he himself respected, and saw. in his 
old age, the dropping out, one after another, of 
those on whose good faith he had relied for agreed 
contributions toward his advances, with the same 
sort of feeling as one looks at the follies of youth, 
"more in sorrow than in anger." Wearied with the 
delays of the Court in deciding controverted points. 
he made the best terms he could by amicable adjust- 
ment of his claims, and philosophically gave his 
thoughts to other matters. Other men contributed 
liberally, some perhaps as freely as himself, in pro- 
portion to their means, hut it is not hazarding any- 
thing to say that, but for Mr. Williams, the rail- 
road could not so soon, if ever, have been built to 
Augusta. 

No man in our State, or in New England, ever 
passed through such a trial of strength, both of char- 
acter and fortune, as Mr. Williams suffered for fifteen 
years, from the time of the inception of the railroad 
enterprise till lie closed his connection with it in 
1861. His hitherto unconquered will regarded no 
labor too arduous, no effort of mind too great, no 
sacrifice of private fortune too large, lor the successful 
accomplishment of what he deemed a accessary pub- 
lic work ; while he, at the same time, realized what 
all men of true public spirit and of generous natures 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 51 

know, that, for any great work done for the public, 
the only present reward will be the ill-will of the 
sluggish, the envy of the narrow-minded, and the 
hatred of all those most benefited by his labors. 

But death robs envy of its sting, and a wiser ap- 
preciation of the value to themselves of the labor of 
another gradually eradicates the hatred of compeers 
and competitors. De Witt Clinton was deprived of 
his office as Canal Commissioner, the emoluments 
of which were esteemed by him as a means of support 
of a large family, as he declined to profit from pub- 
lic employment ; but a returning sense of justice has 
made his name renowned and honored everywhere. 

Having closed an agreement for the sale of his in- 
terest in the railroad, in September, 1861, Mr. Williams 
again became free of public cares. But new duties 
still awaited him. In the month of October follow- 
ing, though then in the seventy-eighth year of his 
a^e, he yielded to the earnest solicitation of Governor 
Washburn, and accepted the appointment of Com- 
missioner of Maine to Washington, in response to 
the invitation of the United States Government, to 
inaugurate a system of defences for the loyal States. 
This Commission was dated the 23d of October, 186 I . 
and on the 1st of November Mr. Williams reached 
Washington in the discharge of its duties, — his first 
visit since his resignation of the office of Senator 
eighteen years before. One only of the old empbyfa 
of the Senate of his time remained. Asbury Dickens. 
Secretary of the Senate, had, a lew months before, at 
the age of ninety-four, been gathered to his fathers. 



52 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

and the Senate Chamber of 1843 had been assigned 
to the Supreme Court, and new Halls, with ample 
apartment-, were now occupied by the Senate and 
the Bouse. Elisha Whittlesey, the upright First 
Comptroller of the Treasury, of the same age with 
himselft was discharging with his accustomed vigor 
the duties of his office. But he, too, has recently been 
called away at the summons of death. A few men of 
other days remained of those in office when Mr. Wil- 
liams left public life. But it was a pleasing sight to 
witness the deference everywhere paid him. for no 
man ever left Washington with a purer reputation. 

.Mr. Williams grew impatient at times at the delays 
consequent on the absence of the public officials, but 
remained some weeks, until an agreement was made 
with the Administration that it would enter at once 
upon the defence of the State, and accept the money 
needed therefor from the State Treasury, on the issue 
to it, in return, of twenty years six per cent, bonds. * 
On the receipt of the official note of the Secretary 
of W;ir. setting forth the term's of the arrangement. 
Mr. Williams left for Maine. But before his departure 
he joined in an application to the Secretary of War 
for the putting in progress the work on the Fort at 
the mouth of the Kennebec, and another for giving 
it the name it now bears, both of which were suc- 
cessful. 

This was the close of his public life. Up to this 
time, no one could perceive any diminution of his 
powers of mind, and scarcely any abatement of his 
physical activity, except a slight defect in bearing 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. ~>.'5 

and a more measured gait. At Washington be visited 
all the public places and military parades, regardless 
of the weather; climbed all the staircases and galle- 
ries of the new Capitol, the Insane Hospital, and the 
various public offices, with apparent ease; and be re- 
ceived and returned calls from his numerous friends 
of other days. 

He bad urged, as an objection to bis acceptance of 
this Commission from Governor Washburn, the fact of 
his age, and his unwillingness to take a place calling 
for active service that could be better performed by 
another and younger man. But on learning fully 
Governor Washburn's policy, and perceiving bow 
deeply he felt the necessit}^ of his acceptance of that 
trust, he yielded his objections ; for be realized the 
importance of the occasion, and the value of the op- 
portunity afforded by this invitation of the President 
for establishing the claims of Maine upon the Gene- 
ral Government, and of initiating a policy for the 
State. 

It proved what Governor Washburn intimated to 
him might possibly turn out to be the case, — "his last 
public service, the graceful rounding off of a long life 
of public usefulness and duty." The complete suc- 
cess of the Commission, and the unanimity with 
which the Legislature of Maine adopted and followed 
out the policy of Governor Washburn, was to Mr. 
Williams a grateful and satisfactory reward. He re- 
garded the policy thus entered upon as destined to 
final and full success, requiring only the persistent 
efforts of the State Government to this end. 

5* 



54 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

Returning from Washington in November. 1861. 
he was taken down with a severe attack of catarrhal 
fever, probably aggravated, if not induced, by the ex- 
citements and exposures of his long journey. For. 
-nine time his recovery seemed doubtful. But his 
iron frame withstood the attack, and after some 
months of confinement he regained sufficient strength 
to attend to business, — a new call being made upon 
him to rebuild, on the site of his former office, an 
elegant and more valuable block of stores, in place 
of one swept away by fire. lie went into this work 
with his accustomed energy. He carried out. too, in 
June, 1862, his purpose of a business visit to Boston. 
On his return from Boston, on the 4th of July, hia 
friends were, for the first time, admonished of his fail- 
ing strength. He soon perceived this himself, and 
said : — "I do not get any stronger; and I do not know 
as I desire to." But a day before his death, though 
confined to his house, he seemed so well that hi- son 
went to Portland on business, not deeming him so 
near his end. 

On the 24th of July lie sank rapidly, and was fully 
conscious of the approach of death. Observing his 
only brother near him. he quietly said. "You have 
come to see the lasi of me. Daniel; we may a- well 
take leave of each other now." and they shook 
hands. 

To his granddaughter, who was in the room at 
eleven o'clock in the evening, and of whom he was 
very fond, he said. " You had better go to bed. Anna." 
and he kissed her and sent her away. 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 55 

Calm and unruffled, as in the days of his manly 
strength, he cheerfully awaited the summons of death 
with the dignity of a philosopher and the meekness 
of a Christian. At one o'clock on the morning of 
Friday, July 25th, 1802, the life of Reuel Williams 
on earth was no more. 

In this hurried and imperfect sketch of the more 
salient features of Mr. Williams's career, doubtless 
many things are omitted which might have been ap- 
propriately referred to, had the duty fallen on the 
writer of it in season for a fuller preparation, or at 
a time when his thoughts could have been uninter- 
ruptedly given to it. A sense of obligation to the 
illustrious deceased, and a vivid appreciation of the 
eminence of his virtues and the greatness of his char- 
acter, alone justified this effort to place in the ar- 
chives of our Society some facts calculated to per- 
petuate his memory. The task should have fallen 
on one nearer his own age, more familiar with his 
early life, and better fitted by habits of study, and 
as a writer, to do justice to so noble a man. 

Numerous, varied, and invaluable as were .Mr. 
Williams's public labors, they were far les^ deserving 
of praise than his private life. Public employment 
sometimes destroys or unfits one for the duties of a 
good citizen, often the most trying of all. Mr. Wil- 
liams's public and professional labors did not with- 
draw his attention from the ordinary duties of daily 
life as a citizen, a neighbor, and a friend. The care 
of schools, the education of the young, the opening 



56 MEMOIR OF BON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

of highways, the establishment of lines of communi- 
cation by means of stage-coaches and of steamboats, 

before the advent of railways, were among the mat- 
ters carefully looked after by him, as well as the 
building of churches, hotels, and other public edi- 
fices. He was an advocate, and an exemplar, too, of 
the doctrine of u encouragement to home industry," 
in the building of foundries, factories, ami other 
works for employing labor and capital. He was the 
chief promoter, if not the original projector, of that 
noble line of stages between Augusta and Bangor, 
which had no superior in the United States. He had 
a large interest in the Augusta Dam, built in 1837. 
Though slow to come into the plan of building it. — 
distrustful, inasmuch as it had. at its inception, no 
secure ledge foundation. — after it was once enter- 
ed upon, he gave to it his generous support, and 
finally the whole rested on his shoulders. When this 
dam was carried away in 1830. creating so much 
consternation and alarm, he alone of all the people 
of the city, was calm and unruffled. An eminent 
lawyer of his own age. speaking of him, says : - His 
firmness and immovability were strongly tested in 
disaster as well as in success ; the reminiscent saw 
him. immediately alter the destruction of the Kenne- 
bee Dam at Augusta ; when every one else seemed 
excited and agitated, he alone was calm and tran- 
quil. 

Subsequently, when the ledge revealed itself on 
the western shore of the river. Mr. William-*- confi- 
dence in the dam was established. Valuable Invest- 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 57 

ments in the shape of factories and workshops are 
now planted there, in which he was largely inter- 
ested. 

It has been shown by a recent writer thai great 
vital power is essential to eminent success; that no 
man has reached the highest attainments in science, 
art. law, politics, or arms, without extraordinary 
vital force. Without this organic power, no one can 
sustain that intense, long-continued application, that 
is essential to the mastery of the more difficult prob- 
lems in abstract science, or the practical solution of 
the novel questions that'arise in public affairs. 

Mr. Williams, no doubt, owed much of his success 
to his naturally fine, physical organization. Not 
large, or much above the average of men in physical 
stature, he had a close-knit, compact, sturdy, mus- 
cular frame. The labors of early life strengthened 
his bodily powers, which his cheerful temper, upright 
life, and industrious habits, kept free of all excess ss, 
so that he never wasted his life physically, nor his 
mind by any indolence or neglect, while his moral 
sense had all the instinctive quickness of a sensitive 
nature, rendered active by watchful practice ; so 
thai he had in early life the most extraordinary self- 
reliance and self-control, and he seemed to those who 
knew him far older than his years, ami almosl too 
precise and methodical for a man of ordinary im- 
pulses. 

A striking trait in Mr. Williams's character was a 
habit of early rising, commenced in boyhood, and 
continued through life. He was always prompt at 



58 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

his post, whether at school, in his office, or other posi- 
tion. He invariably took the earliest hours of the 
morning for the performance of labor, and was tin is 
enabled to accomplish more than others. By sys- 
tematic use of time, he achieved more, in the fruits 
of labor, than any one known to me. He could sus- 
tain the most exhausting intellectual effort without 
apparent fatigue. He had extraordinary powers of 
abstraction, so that he could give his mind fully to 
the investigation of any required subject, withdraw- 
ing his thoughts from other topics, till he mastered 
all its details of fact and comprehended the princi- 
ples involved ; and then turn his mind upon another 
matter equally difficult, without any confusion of 
ideas or loss of perceptive power. When his mind 
had been called to examine a question, he held on to 
it till he saw all its bearings and relations clearly 
and distinctly, and his mind never wavered or hesi- 
tated as to its conclusions. These traits were early 
developed, and by this means he could readily dis- 
pose of a vast number of difficult questions, which 
ordinarily would embarrass and perplex men of less 
clearness of perception and less strength of purpose. 
But his great peculiarity was a habit of system 
and order, lie did one thing at a time, and finished 
it before he allowed his mind to be distracted by 
other matters. It was this habit, readily acquired 
and formed in early life, thai enabled him to accom- 
plish so much, with such uniform success, lb' was 
an accurate COpyisI in boyhood, a sagacious business 
man on his entrance into the legal profession, a wise 



MEMOIR OF HON. KEUEL WILLIAMS. 59 

counsellor in the more difficult eases thai arise in 
practice, an apt conveyancer and draughtsman, — re- 
markable for the terse brevity of his legal instru- 
ments. — a skilful pleader in the days of technical 
practice, and an effective and successful advocate. 
To the jury and before the court his arguments were 
able, logical, and exhaustive. 

This habit of doing a thing thoroughly and at the 
first, and so arranging all his books and papers as to 
lose no time in a confused search for what he 
wanted, made him the remarkable business man 
that he continued to be through life. He never 
allowed himself to add a column of figures a second 
time, and never found himself, or was found by 
others, to be mistaken. 

To all who knew him well Mr. Williams's domes- 
tic life was the most charming theatre of his virtues ; 
for amid all the activity of business, and the calls on 
his time in the public service, he never neglected his 
own fireside, or forgot his parental duties. Not his 
own children and household alone, but the large 
family circle of which he became the recognized and 
honored head, felt his influence, and the power of 
his teachings. His own self-denying example, his 
even temper, his affable manners, his fidelity to duty 
in all the minute details of daily life, his readiness to 
aid those who were disposed to help themselves, and 
his silent but stern rebuke of all levity and extrava- 
gance, exerted a powerful effect on all, especially on 
the young, who came within the reach of his influ- 
ence. His brothers and sisters, his nephews and 



GO MEMOIR OF HON. BEUEL WILLIAMS. 

niece- alike, consulted him and leaned on his advice 
with affectionate veneration and regard. lie threw 
himself into the sports of children with the sain.' z 
as into business, always excelling in any of them. 
He was very fond of children and young persons, and 
yearly or oftener, as occasion favored, even in his 
latest years, he would get an omnibus, and. filling it 
with children, grandchildren, and friends, go off to 
Togus, or elsewhere, on a strawberry party, or on 
some expedition of pleasure. He was also very fond 
of fishing, and, when practicable, would give up his 
birthday, with a week's time, to this sport. 

Notwithstanding his naturally reserved manner 
and demeanor to strangers, or those whose charac- 
ter he did not respect, he was a- mild and gentle as 
a child in disposition, and most cordial and winning 
to those who appreciated his true character. 

His professional life, as such, gave him no great 
opportunity for wide notoriety or distinction out of 
his Mate, and probably he had less pride in his pro- 
fession merely as a profession, than most men of his 
time of far less ability. Hi- great BUCCesS in the early 
acquisition of an ample fortune through his own un- 
aided exertions, his large acquaintance with the 
leading men of Massachusetts of that day. his annual 
visit- of some weeks to Boston, where he met in the 
familiarity of friendship the best educated and most 
accomplished gentlemen of that city, seemed t<> satisfy 
his ambition, without effort for public notoriety. But 
he was widely known, in coinparat ively early life, as 
a man of high promise; while his entire self-posses- 



MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAM& Gl 

sion, ease of manner, and sell-reliance, early led to his 
recognition as a perfect gentleman, though he never 
assumed to be one. His accurate knowledge, clear 

judgment, unquestioned integrity, admirable business 
qualities, and well-known success, inspired general 
confidence at home and abroad, and gave him vast 
influence over the people of the community where he 
dwelt \ and his singular freedom from all vanity, dis- 
play, or affectation of superiority, disarmed the natural 
jealousy evinced toward prominent men ; and he was 
popular beyond example, for one possessing his posi- 
tive qualities. It may be doubted if any man can be 
named who bad in so great a degree, for so long a 
lifetime, retained so fully the unqualified confidence 
of the entire community in which he lived, lie en- 
joyed, too, in an equal degree, the confidence and 
good-will of his brethren of the legal profession, — 
the highest aim and end of a lawyer's life. 

Everything that Mr. Williams said or did, in pub- 
lic or private, was the result of conviction. He was 
sincere in thought and in act. He did nothing for 
effect, nothing to excite attention, or draw forth ob- 
servation and remark. His desire was to do his dutv, 
to fulfil with scrupulous exactness every obligation, 
whether arising from bis own act or undertaking, or 
resulting from that of others, in all the varied rela- 
tions of life, whether in the family circle, the neigh- 
borhood, the community, or the world at large. He 
bad an abiding faith in his own judgment, for he 
sought to form it by the pursuit and observance of 
every honorable method to gain information, with the 



62 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

most conscientious desire to reach the exact measure 
of justice to others. 

It may be proper to say something as to his relig- 
ious belief. Educated in the Congregational order of 
early days, before its division into Orthodox and 
Unitarian sects, he afterwards became a member of 
the latter, and was a liberal supporter of that de- 
nomination. In May, 1853, in the Unitarian Church, 
occupied for the time by the Rev. Robert C. Water- 
ston, of Boston. Mr. Williams was publicly baptized. 
This event following soon after the death of his 
son-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Judd, a man of rare genius 
and of deep religious feeling, for many years pastor 
of that church, shows the influence that had gradu- 
ally led him to make a public confession of his faith. 

To extraordinary energy, Mr. Williams united a 
large share of common sense. He had a well-balanc- 
ed mind, with excellent judgment, without any bril- 
liant qualities of any sort. These gave him great suc- 
cess. His influence with the jury was most remarkable, 
from the confidence felt in his sincerity and the truth 
of his statements. He had the power of presenting 
such arguments and reasonings as would satiety the 
common sense and ordinary understandings of men. 
His sense of justice -was always predominant. In tes- 
t living to facts affecting his own interests, no one 
could fail to see his exact regard for truth, and his 
anxious de-ire to give full force to facts adverse 
to his own side of the case. Instances of this sort 
are abundant and familiar to our courts and lawyers. 

lb' had no sympathy with persons infirm of pur- 



MEMOIB OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 63 

pose, or deficienl in energy and courage. Be fell 
that success in this world was open to all men alike. 
and he had no patience with a spendthrift or a slug- 
gard, though ready to help the unfortunate and the 
deserving. 

A form of beneficence practised by Mr. Williams. 
most valued and most valuable, was the encourage- 
ment he gave to the industrious and deserving, who 
had been fortunate enough to gain his good-will, 
giving them means of acquiring independence by the 
judicious loan of his capital, in the form of permanent 
rents at low rates, or advances made in view of con- 
templated success in business. The proprieties of 
private confidence forbid more than an allusion to 
this noble trait of Mr. Williams's character. 

Trained in the severest discipline in the daily duties 
of early life, instinctively fond of order and method. 
he enjoyed to the last the labors of business, the 
watchfulness of parental oversight, and the care of his 
own property. In private, as in public life, he was 
faithful and faultless; as a legislator, cautious and 
conservative. He had an instinctive regard for the 
common law, and dreaded the innovations of senti- 
mental theorists. All changes of the law of descent, 
and the separation of the property of husband and 
wife, he spoke of with disfavor, as tending to disturb 
domestic tranquillity; and he regarded the Bacrednesa 
of pecuniary obligation as essential to the mainte- 
nance of good morals. 

But he never took advantage of the misfortunes, 
the weaknesses, or the mistakes of others, lie never 



64 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAMS. 

exacted a harsh penalty, or claimed a forfeiture, 
against an unfortunate or imprudent debtor, or took 
unlawful interesl of others. His fortune was largely 
due to Bagacious investments in lands, at an early 
dav, but more to his systematic industry, and the 
gradual accumulations of a long life of patient and 
productive toil. 

Though occupied by so many and such multiform 
cares of private and public business, he had abundant 
leisure for the gratification of every wish, for he so 
arranged his business matters that they never en- 
croached upon one another. 

Many acts of charity on the part of Mr. Williams 
were so performed as to leave no feeling of mortifi- 
cation in the recipients of his generosity; and he was 
ever careful to avoid all acts that might in any way 
needlessly wound the pride of those less fortunate 
than himself in the acquisition of wealth. lli< sense 
of justice was the mainspring of his conduct, and he 
followed the dictates of his judgment far more than 
any impulses of feeling. 

If we were called upon to determine in what aspect 
of his life his example was of mosl value, we should 
say in the practical solution of that greatest social 
problem of this age. — the proper uses of wealth. — a 
question especially interesting to Americans, from the 
comparative ease with which it is obtained, and the 
laxity of morals which seems naturally to follow it< 
possession. For distinguished position or great wealth, 
unaccompanied by that refinement and culture which 
Insure their direction to noble ends, is a positive 



MEMOIR OF HON. REVEL WILLIAMS. 65 

evil to the possessor, as well as to society .it large; 

and the man who has wealth without generosity and 
public virtue, is an incumbrance if not a nuisance in 
society. To treat with respect the opinions or the 
memory of a man who has money, for that alone, but 
who fails to fulfil the arduous and self-denying trusts 
which wealth always and necessarily imposes, indi- 
cates a debasement in morals as offensive as the wor- 
ship of idols, or other practices that place savage 
below civilized life. In any proper estimate of a 
man's character, we must award praise or blame by 
that impartial estimate that future times will recog- 
nize as the true one — the amount of good or ill he 
has accomplished for humanity and his race. Any 
standard of virtue drawn from a more limited view 
of its nature than its adaptation to the general 
laws of our well-being, would be unworthy of our 
assent; and we estimate a man's greatness in pro- 
portion to the conformity of his life to these prin- 
ciples. 

Upon any view of life, therefore, judging by the 
lowest standard of virtue, few men are fortunate 
within the definition of the uninspired Greek moral- 
ist, and still smaller the number of those worthy <»{' 
remembrance after death. Domestic infelicity, infirm- 
ity of body, a lack of the means of enjoyment in 
early life of the aspirations of youthful ambition, the 
want of opportunity to fall bravely in battle for one's 
countrv, or by some honorable sacrifice win an hon- 
ored name in death, are the common allotments of 
humanity. It is only those whose life ha- developed 



06 MEMOIR OF HON. REUEL WILLIAM-. 

the persistent, self-denying principles of virtue, that 
future ages can worthily honor. 

As Mr. Williams recedes from the immediate view 
of his contemporaries, his character will loom up to 
the eye of those who come after us, and assume its 
true proportions among his compeers. Men of more 
brilliant talent — in the popular language of the 
day — or even more developed in a single quality of 
mind, were around him, in the Senate and in our own 
Slate. Others had more attainments in knowledge 
derived from books, others still had more powers of 
oratorical fascination, than he ever put forth in action. 
But it is in vain to seek among them all for one who 
united, in so eminent a degree, all the true elements 
of manhood with so few defects; who illustrated the 
self-denying virtue of patient forbearance under trials 
the most perplexing, of fidelity to duty under the 
greatest temptation to self-aggrandizement, of gener- 
ous magnanimity under the most mortifying proofs 
of ingratitude. With every opportunity for self-in- 
dulgence, he maintained to the last the virtues of an 
almost austere simplicity with the wisest private and 
public generosity, realizing the measure of Solon's 
rule, that he to whom Divinity continued happiness 
unto the end we call happy. 



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